Payment Networks Expand Stablecoin Settlement Infrastructure

This week Visa and Mastercard detailed stablecoin initiatives during earnings calls, with Visa reporting a $4.6 billion annualized global stablecoin settlement run rate and issuance enabled in more than 50 countries. Both firms described expanded settlement rails, partnerships (MetaMask, Gemini, Ripple) and pilot payouts, while lawmakers advanced a crypto market-structure bill shifting oversight toward the CFTC.